


Aware

by Cyndi



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Autism, Autism Acceptance, Autism Speaks, Autism Speaks is very bad and harmful to autistic people!, Autistic!Doctor, Don't light it up blue in April, Gen, Go REDInstead, Humor, Neurodiversity, Stim Toys, actually autistic, areyouawareofmenow, autistic advocacy, autistic headcanon, redinstead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-30 16:44:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6432361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cyndi/pseuds/Cyndi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor-- all of him-- disrupts Autism Speaks and its harmful Light it up Blue campaign all over the world. (Autistic!Doctor)</p>
<p>If you're coming to this fic with the intent to tell me I "don't understand real autism..." Please do yourself a favor and read <a href="http://butterflyinthewell.tumblr.com/post/159208048083/the-autism-that-nobody-talks-about">this post on my Tumblr</a> so you don't embarrass yourself in the comments section like another person already did.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aware

**Author's Note:**

> Autism Speaks is going to be taking over everything like it does every April. I'm autistic and I am speaking. Autism Speaks is extremely damaging and harmful to autistic people. Wearing blue, lighting it up blue and supporting Autism Speaks walks sends a message that autistic people aren't wanted. Autism Speaks uses damaging rhetoric that contributes to the stigma autistic people face every day. 
> 
> Don't believe me? Please read this link, it explains everything. <https://strangerdarkerbetter.wordpress.com/2016/03/26/whats-wrong-with-autism-speaks-a-collection-of-resources/>
> 
> If you truly want to be supportive of autistic people, show acceptance by wearing red. Toss out that blue puzzle piece and replace it with the rainbow infinity symbol for neurodiversity. I am not broken, I just have a brain that works different. The same applies to autistic people who can't speak, need help with basic living skills and communicate through typing or their behavior. They aren't broken either and they can live a full life if their needs are accommodated instead of treated like symptoms of a disease.
> 
> Autism is a way of being. Yes, it's a disability, but most of the disabling comes from a society that stigmatizes us instead of listening to us. I hope this fanfic gets me heard.

April 2, 2016. Planet Earth.

Monuments on the night side of the planet cast a chilling blue light into the sky. On the day side, people dressed in blue shouted on the city streets. Other voices cried out against the blue, but went unheard. They kept crying out anyway. They cried out in real life and online, hoping someone, somewhere, heard them.

And someone did.

As the day wore on, many streets heard a strange wheezing sound as a blue British police box appeared out of thin air. The reports afterward came back mixed and confused.

Some people said they saw a gentleman wearing a very long scarf and a hat over his brown curls who offered passers by a Jelly Baby. Another person spotted him twisting [a wooden object that started as a cube](http://www.stimtastic.co/stim-toys/snake-cube-puzzle).

Someone else said they saw a young fellow wearing a tweed coat and a bow tie who twirled with excitement. His hands flailed everywhere, and in each one he had a transparent red object that [twisted around his fingertips like a tangle of plastic](http://www.stimtastic.co/stim-toys/tangle-jr).

Yet another report described a fellow with slicked back white hair who held onto his coat lapels and shot everyone sharp looks. Later, a small boy glimpsed him [repeatedly squeezing and juggling a green ball](http://www.stimtastic.co/stim-toys/stretch-ball).

Many were baffled by the blustery blond curly-haired fellow whose coat came in many colors. He made snide remarks to passers by who wore blue before pulling [a red disk pendant out from beneath his shirt and inserting it into his mouth](http://www.stimtastic.co/stim-jewelry/chewable-cloud-pendant-necklace). Reports said this jewelry was decorated with a cartoonish white cloud.  


There was one with a dark bowl haircut who hopped about and played music on some sort of pipe or recorder. When he wasn’t tooting his instrument, he looked fascinated by [a small, ribbed orange tube that made noises when he bent it](http://www.stimtastic.co/stim-toys/pop-toob).

An umbrella shop owner found himself face to face with a man carrying a unique umbrella who looked around in dismay. He took [something silver from his pocket and twisted it around his fingers](http://www.stimtastic.co/stim-jewelry/snake-twist-necklace) as he watched the people dressed in blue gather outside.

Someone said they saw a serious blue-eyed bloke wearing a black leather jacket who kept his dark hair cut very short. Reports claimed he [continually twiddled some sort of silver ring on his right middle finger](http://www.stimtastic.co/stim-jewelry/infinity-spinner-ring).

Somebody in a costume shop said they saw a very beautiful young man with wavy brown hair framing his face who seemed somewhat startled by the crowds dressed in blue. He was seen [twirling a gear-shaped pendant](http://www.stimtastic.co/stim-jewelry/gear-spinner-pendant-necklace) as he paced up and down the aisles.

A woman on a bicycle was almost run down by the older gentleman driving a very old fashioned car. Someone else claimed he had [a purple rabbit-shaped lap pad draped over his knees](http://www.stimtastic.co/stim-toys/weighted-bunnies).

One lady bumped into a spiky-haired fellow wearing a long brown coat who had very sad brown eyes when he saw all the blue. He appeared focused on [the colorful cylindrical puzzle in his right hand](http://www.stimtastic.co/stim-toys/eni-puzzle), though he never looked down at it as he manipulated it.  


Yet another report described a man wearing a cricket uniform with a celery stick on his lapel who kept gazing expectantly at the sky. A young mother who passed particularly close noticed [he kept manipulating a rectangle of cyan cloth covered in dark blue space ships](http://www.stimtastic.co/stim-toys/marble-maze).

A young girl shared potato chips with a little old man who often touched his ragged goatee. She reported he stopped eating several times to [play with the bike chain bracelet wrapped around his left wrist](http://www.stimtastic.co/stim-jewelry/bike-chain-fidget-bracelet-heavy-weight).

Suzanne Wright was rudely awakened at 4am by a gentleman with prominent white eyebrows playing his electric guitar on her front lawn. She couldn’t be sure, but she swore [he had a black mushroom-shaped object poking out of his mouth](http://www.stimtastic.co/stim-jewelry/chewable-no-gloom-shroom-pendant).

But what did these men all have in common besides their unique gadgets? 

They all wore red shoes. 

Reports said some of them casually merged into worldwide Autism Speaks walks and passed out fliers explaining the damage the organization was doing to autistic people. Parents were mystified as these strange men faded into the crowd like they were never there.

The men casually stepped into their blue boxes. The fellow playing guitar was last, after ensuring Suzanne Wright got no sleep. And at precisely the same moment everywhere, the blue boxes all took to the sky. From each one, a voice rang out.

“I heard you. I heard all of you. I promise to make this better.”  


That night, all the blue lights around the world mysteriously turned red. A rainbow infinity symbol lit the western horizon. It followed the turn of the Earth, hovering without setting.

Suzanne Wright found a note taped to her front door. 

It read:

_Autistic people are taking back what is ours. We don’t want your awareness. We want acceptance, and I will help bring it. Every year, I will turn your blue lights red and erase your puzzle pieces. I will make the world #RedInstead until you learn what real #AutismAcceptance is._

_Autism Speaks does not speak for any autistic person on this planet. You are hated, Suzanne Wright, and by no one more than the autistic community._

_I will hear every voice you ignore. I will amplify every voice you try to silence. I’ve got very good hearing-- I’m autistic, too._

_Expect me to serenade you again next year._

_\--The Doctor_  

_P.S. #AreYouAwareOfMeNow?_


End file.
